Npower voted the worst gas and electricity firm for service - but more people happy with their supplier despite rising bills

Npower has been voted the worst energy supplier for the fifth year in a row with nearly half of its customers unhappy with the gas and electricity firm.

It was the only company of the big
six energy firms - British Gas, SSE, Scottish Power, E.ON and EDF Energy - to see its performance fall in comparison website uSwitch's Customer Satisfaction Report.

Despite suppliers having hit them with winter price hikes, the number of customers happy with their energy supplier overall rose compared with last year. Some 66 per cent were satisfied compared to 62 per cent in 2011, uSwitch said.

Get down low: nPower was voted the worst energy firm for customer satisfaction in the uSwitch report.

But it wasn't all good news. Less than half of consumers would
recommend their supplier, while just 49 per cent thought they offered value
for money and 43 per cent thought their supplier had them on the best
deal.

E.ON was crowned the best performing supplier. It yesterday confirmed a 7.7 per cent rise in the price of gas and electricity for its four million customers, to begin in January.

But it boosted its proportion of satisfied customers from 64 per cent to 74 per cent having stood apart from rival suppliers by promising to freeze prices this year, making it the last of the big six energy firms to impose a price increase this winter.

E.ON overtook Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) as the best performer - the first time in seven years that SSE has not come out on top.

Tony Keeling, director of customer service at SSE, said: ‘SSE's customers are its number one priority and we are extremely proud to have been rated best for customer service once again and for the seventh year in a row.

‘We recognise these survey results highlight the areas where we can improve our overall customer experience, and we are determined to continue our efforts to build trust in the industry and ensure customers receive only the very highest level of service.’

Bills: Energy bills continue to rise but more customers are happy with their company than they were last year

The poll, based on 5,000 energy customer responses, looks at how happy customers are with the big six energy firms, taking in all aspects including customer satisfaction, billing and online services.

While npower managed to come bottom overall, it was also the worst performer in many of the individuals service areas, including customer service, billing and online services.

Paul Massara, chief commercial officer at npower, said: ‘Our customers, and the level of service we can provide, are our number one priority and that's why we have invested £200million in a new customer service system.

‘We are currently in the middle of moving nearly six million customer accounts on to the system, which will enable us to respond to customer queries quickly and more efficiently.’

British Gas was the only other supplier to see a drop in customer satisfaction, slipping from 3rd to 5th place. However, 65 per cent of its customers are still happy with its performance – 4 percentage points higher than last year.

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com, said: ‘The focus this year has been on re-building trust. It’s the start of a long road to recovery, but energy suppliers are falling over themselves to demonstrate to consumers that they are listening, learning and changing.

This message does seem to be getting through though, as customer satisfaction has increased despite suppliers announcing deeply unpopular winter price hikes this year.’